The use of polymers for various disposable articles is widespread and well known in the art. In fact, the heaviest use of polymers in the form of films and fibers occurs in the packaging and the disposable article industries. Films employed in the packaging industry include those used in food and non-food packaging, merchandise bags and trash bags. However, these non-degradable petroleum-based thermoplastics contribute to enormous environmental issues.
Biodegradable polymers with excellent strength and stiffness are considered to be promising alternatives to replace some of the thermoplastics. However, the brittleness of some of these biodegradable polymers is a major drawback, impeding its widespread use. In addition, biodegradable polymers do not contain functional groups, such as carboxylic acid groups, hydroxyl groups and amine groups, except at the polymer chain ends. This lack of functional groups greatly limits the application of these synthetic biodegradable polymers.
Incorporating flexible polymers or elastomers via melt blending may be a potentially cost effective way of overcoming the brittleness of biodegradable polymers. Various non-biodegradable polymers such as polyethylene (PE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), poly(ether)urethane, acrylonitrilebutadiene-styrene copolymer, thermoplastic polyolefin elastomers, poly(ethylene-glycidyl methacrylate) (EGMA), linear low-density polyethylene and many other petroleum-based polymers and elastomers have been used in toughening the biodegradable polymers. Although many of the reported polymer blends show impressively high tensile elongations compared with that of neat biodegradable polymer, only marginal to moderate improvements in impact strength (IS) have been achieved. Further, the presence of non-biodegradable elastomers in these polymer blends still has an environmental impact. Thus, it is derisible to develop polymer blends with biodegradable components that display better impact strength and tensile properties.